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New affiliate portal for our partners

January 2019

The success of our partnership network is driven by great financial advisors and the work they do with with their clients. To save them time, we launched a new Affiliate Portal to make it easier for them to submit new registrations and applications.

Using qr codes to simply add funds

December 2018

We are constantly looking to make every aspect of our service as simple as possible, by implementing the latest innovative technologies. By using personalized QR codes our clients are now able to easly add funds to their accounts.

Mobile application

November 2018

It is no surprise to us that as more people switch to mobile banking, that our users want to invest in the same way. So we not only optimised our site for mobile devices, but also launched a new app to help our investors stay connected 24/7.

Growing our partnership network with new investment and credit products

August 2018

In 2017 we launched a new type of mortgage deposit loan in partnership with a network of trusted financial advisers to help their clients buy a home. The feedback was so positive, we introduced new products to grow our partnership network.

Autoinvest in real estate

July 2018

Our range of secured real estate investments is incredibly popular with investors and so we listened to the feedback from our users and made it easier to invest in only these types of loans with a special new portfolio option in Autoinvest.

Flexible loan auctions = more loans funded

Jun 2018

Sometimes loan auctions on our platform aren't 100% funded, or the borrower isn't 100% happy with the final interest rate. So we created a flexible loan auction system, where borrowers can accept partial funding and reject individual offers.

WE. ARE. GDPR.

May 2018

We know our users value their privacy and trust us to protect their data. We also know that most people didn't actually read the new GDPR regulations. So we did! - Then we went through all our processes to not just be compliant, but just better!

New loan portal for borrowers

April 2018

We value our borrowers and investors equally - making sure both sides get a great deal and fantastic user experience. So we created a new Loan Portal for borrowers that makes it easier to manage their loan, apply for a loan top-up or a new loan.

A smoother, more efficient melon - improved from the inside out

March 2018

As the volume of users and loans on our platforms continues to increase, we had three choices: work faster, work harder or more workers. We chose option 4: Work better! Our new internal CRM system has increased efficiency AND kept fees low!

More secure than ever before

January 2018

We are only successful because of the mutual trust our users have in us - to ensure the security of their money as well as their privacy and personal data. We don't do minimum standards, so we added a new thick melon shell to our IT systems.

Secondary Market v2.0

December 2017

We took our Secondary Market and just made it a whole lot better. The new user interface makes it much easier and quicker for investors to buy and sell existing loans directly with each other, while the backend auction system was improved to make it more efficient and even more transparent.

Simple Investment Statistics

October 2017

We made it easy for investors to track their earnings on our platform, with 'live' statistics for the Net Investment Return of their portfolio, which fully takes into account investment fees, loan defaults and projected income from legal collections. These statistics are simple, innovative and fully transparent, as we publish the full methodology as well as the same statistics for our entire loan portfolio.

CashFree Hypo loans to finance mortgage deposits

August 2017

We launched our CashFree Hypo to help people buy their dream home, even if they can't afford the huge deposits now required by traditional banks for a mortgage. The terms are great for borrowers and investors, who have the security of investing in real estate.

New registration process and loan applications using natural language

July 2017

We are a p2p lender, not a bank, so we want to talk to our users like people, not customers. We launched our completely redesigned registration form and loan application process, which uses 'natural language' to make things simpler and as non-bank-like as possible!

Short-term loans for people who need money fast

May 2017

We launched our short-term loan product to help people that need money fast and are at risk of paying extortionate fees with non-standard lenders that can trap them in a cycle of debt and borrowing. The loan application can be completed in just a few minutes online and the money is sent to the customer on the same day.

Notification centre and social network

March 2017

Our notification centre was created to help us communicate with our users better in an era of instant updates via smartphones and new forms of communication via social networks. Investors can now stay up to date in real time about news and investment opportunities on our platform with a twitter like news feed, as well as interact directly with other people in our community via posts, direct messages and the ability to follow their friends and our most successful investors.

€5 million in loans

October 2016

We reached our next major milestone - €5,000,000 was lent on our platform.

Scoring model v2.0

September 2016

Our innovative new scoring model for assessing loan applications was designed from the ground up, taking into everything we have learned about our customers during our first four years of successful operations. It provides better assessments and allows our investors to make better decisions about which loans they want to fund.

Secondary market

July 2016

We launched our Secondary Market to allow investors to easily sell their investment in loans before the maturity date, with prices negotiated directly between people in an open auction allowing people to sell their investments at a premium or discount depending on the status of the loan.

Investment Manager - Autoinvest

May 2016

We launched our innovative Autoinvest feature to make investing on Žltý melón, with users able to automatically invest in loans on our platform according to our of our predefined investment strategies or their own personalised preferences.

Internal currency conversion

Apríl 2016

We introduced internal currency conversions as part of our platform to allow our users to easily convert funds when making investments or simply to profit from changes in the international exchange rate markets.

Open to all EU investors

February 2016

Žltý melón was opened to foreign investors from all EU/SEPA countries. This move meant that the benefits of investing on our platform were no longer just available to people in Slovakia.

Expansion to the Czech Republic

February 2016

We began offering loans to residents in the Czech Republic, denominated in Czech Koruna, open to all of our investors. Žltý melón was the p2p lender in the world to offer a true multi-currency and multi-country platform for investors.

Žltý melón v2.0

February 2016

Launch of our updated IT system that offers a completely new and streamlined design, as well as a new intuitive investment terminal with support for custom reports and analytics for investors. We also launched a new backend system with support for multiple currencies and investments in multiple countries.

CashFree Purchase loans to help spread the repayments for high value goods

December 2015

We introduced a new product to finance the purchase of consumer goods in cooperation with retailers. The first pilot product was launched in partnership with Bike & City in Bratislava.

The first investment round

September 2015

We successfully completed our Series A investment round in 2015 and gained additional capital to strengthen our development and implement our strategic growth plans. The investment included support from the European Investment Fund, which invested in the company through the JEREMIE initiative.

Guaranteed CashFree Housing loans to finance the purchase of new home

November 2014

We introduced a new product to fund the reservation fee and deposit for people buying a new build home. These loans offer great terms for borrowers and are provided in partnership with several leading developers who provide investors with an extra buyback guarantee to secure their investment.

High Risk loans

October 2014

We introducing a new credit rating class for riskier borrowers, which offers experienced investors the opportunity to increase their earnings with loans at higher interest rates.

Lending reaches €1 million

May 2014

We reached our first major milestone - €1,000,000 of loans were arranged on our platform.

Watchlist and Watchdog

November 2013

We launched two new features, Watchlist and Watchdog, which help make investing on Žltý melón as simple as possible by alerting people about new loan auctions that match their chosen criteria in real time.

Discussion forum

July 2013

As part of our commitment to transparency we launched a discussion forum open to all of our users, where they could share their experiences and give advice to one another. There is no other financial institution that is more transparent than Žltý melón.

Innovative loan auctions and investment products

February 2013

Since our initial launch, we tested a variety of models for loans, investments and auctions to ensure that our growth was balanced and that we are able to match the demand from both investors and borrowers with the best possible terms for both sides.

Public launch

December 2012

After a successful beta release, we launched the public version of the platform. Žltý melón was made open for all people in Slovakia, allowing them to borrow and invest on the platform.

Žltý melón is born!

September 2012

The initial launch of the platform was open to a limited group of investors and borrowers. Žltý melón was the first p2p lending platform in Slovakia that built on the success of p2p lending platforms in the UK and US.

About us

The peer-to-peer lending portal operated by Žltý melón is an innovative concept in the world of finance, which revolutionises the old way of banking. Peer-to-peer lending makes it possible for people to bypass the bank and lend the money they want to put aside as savings, directly to people who want to borrow money. By cutting out the expensive intermediaries, borrowers benefit from cheaper loans and investors earn much higher returns on their savings, as they keep all the profits.

Žltý melón was founded in Slovakia at the end of 2012 as the first – and still the only - p2p lending platform in the country.

We are a small innovative FinTech startup, founded by group of people with extensive experience in finance and investment management. Žltý melón has been further strengthened by a team of credit analysts with extensive experience in credit risk management, as well as leading IT security specialists and top marketing gurus.

In 2015 Žltý melón successfully completed its series A investment round, raising the capital needed to strengthen its position and expand its activities across the EU. The Series A investment round was sponsored by the EU-investment fund programme JEREMIE, which is managed by Limerock Fund Manager through their subsidiary FTK Invest.

Their investment in Žltý melón was made in partnership with Hendrik Bremer, a long-time executive at PwC and Roland Berger, two of Europe’s leading consultancy firms, where he had many years of involvement with financial services in Central and Eastern Europe. As well as becoming a key investor, Hendrik has also joined the company's senior management team, bringing his extensive experience and business relationships to help support the continued growth of Žltý melón

JEREMIE is a joint initiative between the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, established in 2007 as part of the European Investment Fund (www.eif.org), with the aim of providing start-up and expansion capital to innovative and commercially attractive small and medium sized enterprises. The fund focuses on investing in companies that can demonstrate a technological advantage or unique business model and that possess products or services of an innovative nature.

Management of the company

Roman Feranec

Roman is the co-founder and Chairman of Žltý melón, a venture he started after gaining extensive experience during his professional career in both the financial and real estate sectors.

During a five year period beginning in 2001, he held numerous senior positions in the business consulting division of the world's leading consulting company, Accenture. As a leading member of the firm’s Financial Sector and Insurance Service division, he helped orchestrate and manage the successful completion of a series of major consulting projects for some of the leading banks in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and in Italy.

In 2006, he joined one of Slovakia's leading real estate development companies, GRUNT, a.s., as a senior board member, taking on the sole responsibility for overseeing their Finance and Internal Operations. In 2007 he became a founding member of Gradial Investment Management, Inc., where he worked to conclude a range of complex high value investment and financial transactions, the majority of which were in the real estate sector.
Prior to starting his career, Roman studied at the University of Economics in Bratislava, graduating with a specialisation in banking. He then continued his studies at Comenius University in Bratislava, where he was awarded his Ph.D. degree in International Financial Markets.

Hendrik Bremer

Hendrik has an extensive professional career, with over 20 years of experience in Financial Services in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Western Europe and the Middle East as a Banker and Partner at PwC and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, where he was responsible for Financial Services Consulting in CEE.

During the first five years of his career he worked at several leading CEE Banks, including senior manager roles in the retail banking business division at Raiffeisenbank International and Unicredit/Bank Austria. Hendrik’s professional experience is diverse, as he has held roles and achieved successes in areas related to corporate strategy, new business model development, transformation/PMI and implementation, as well as in corporate governance and process optimisation.

Hendrik is of Dutch nationality and holds a degree in Business Administration from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, part of a distinguished academic career during which he studied in France, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Robert Horváth

Robert started his career in the Legal Department at VUB Bank. In 2001, he took the opportunity to head the Loan Administration Department at HVB Bank Slovakia. In 2004, he joined the real estate financing team at HVB Bank and in 2005 he became Deputy Head of the department. During this time he gained extensive experience in numerous financial projects across all market segments and which in total amounted to almost 300 million EUR of financing.

In 2007, he took on a new role at GRUNT, a.s with responsibility for the firm’s external finance and investment management activities. In 2008 he became a partner in Gradial Investment Management, Inc., where he was involved in several major investment and financial transactions.

Robert graduated from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1997.

Svetlana Krulj

Svetlana has worked in finance and marketing her entire career. Her first position was in retail banking at Poštová banka, later moving to VUB Bank (Intesa).
She then worked as Head of Events for the PR agency, Press Room and was a marketing and PR specialist at the Grunt real estate company. Svetlana was a founding member of
Gradial Investment Management, where she was involved in dozens of investment and financial transactions, primarily in the real estate market.
She also co-founded Boomer, which works in partnership with Zoznam to provide exclusive daily offers for their users.

Svetlana graduated from University of Matej Bel in Trnava.

WHAT ŽLTÝ MELÓN PROVIDES FOR YOU

We provide a lending platform to bypass the banks

We connect people who want to earn more on their investments, with people who want to borrow money more cheaply, so that everyone gets a better deal.

We administer loan auctions and manage the whole process between investors and borrowers, from initial loan application to final repayment.

We provide comprehensive legal, administrative and risk-assessment services for the loans arranged on our platform, including the agreement of loan contracts between investors and borrowers.

We arrange loan contracts that are fair, transparent and of the highest legal standard, in order to provide all of our users with the best possible protection and security.

We guarantee and facilitate the monetary transactions between investors and borrowers through a trusted escrow service.

We provide security and safety:

Our credit analysts carry out rigorous identity verification checks and a comprehensive risk assessment process for each loan applicant who wants to borrow on Žltý melón.

We verify the personal credibility, financial history and current financial situation of each borrower on our platform, to ensure they are able to meet their repayment obligations.

Žltý melón assigns a credit rating category to each loan applicant who passes our comprehensive assessment process and who we approve to borrow money on our platform. A borrower’s credit rating category reflects the level of risk for investors and helps determine the interest rate they will pay to investors for their loan.

We provide the tools and information to help investors manage and diversify their individual level of risk, when investing in loans on our platform.

We provide an active monitoring service for all loans on our platform, in order to ensure borrowers make their scheduled loan repayments to investors and so that we can proactively identify if a borrower is struggling to repay their loan and help them to get back on track.

We operate a multi-tiered debt recovery process on behalf of our investors, completely free of charge, which includes everything from our pro-active communication with borrowers, all the way to legal enforcement of any debts if necessary.

We serve the investors:

We provide the platform and the possibility to bypass the bank, giving you the opportunity to invest your money and earn the profits that your bank has never shared with you.

We collect and verify as much information about our borrowers as possible, so that we can then pass it on to you along with all of the tools, statistics and resources you need, so you can easily choose investments that make you money.

We help our investors to properly identify and evaluate the appropriate level of risk for their investments, plus make sure they set interest rates at the right level to ensure the returns on their investment match their goals and expectations.

We make sure Žltý melón is always fresh!

Our customer service team and tech support specialists are always available to help answer any questions or sort out any problems you might run into when using our platform.

Our credit analysts individually assess each borrower and loan application, approving only the best and most responsible people. No worms in our fruit!

Our IT team constantly monitors and works to improve our systems to ensure they run smoothly, are always safe and provide our users with the simplest, friendliest and most transparent way to make money or borrow money. It is a sweet experience.

Our marketing team constantly monitors the current conditions of the credit market – including how much banks and other financial institutions pay you for your savings and what they then charge the people they lend it – to ensure that the interest rates on our platform are the best possible deal for both investors and borrowers. It's juicy!

Keep in mind that when investing in peer-to-peer loans you risk your capital as it does not apply any protective mechanism. You can learn more about the risks of peer-to-peer lending and the Žltý melón transparent approach on this page or in the Prospectus of the User. Investors should study both the Prospectus and the The Conflict of Interest before they invest.

Strategic investor: EU-JEREMIE-Fund. Žltý melón is supported by the European Investment Fund as an equity investor through the JEREMIE initiative. You can learn about our company in the section
About us.

When you connect to the Žltý melon portal and working on your investment, auctions, loans, and personal data all data are transmitted encrypted by SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). This ensures that the your information will reach us as you entered it and no one else will read them.